Personal blog of Dr. Peter Williams

A couple days ago I was approached by the dean of the college I used to teach marketing at and – knowing I have in-depth knowledge of the digital world – he asked if I would be willing to teach a couple “one off” classes on graphic design.

I am not a graphic designer. Heck, I outsource that stuff (as I’ve alluded at in previous posts). So I was a little shocked at his question. Of all people – I thought – he should know that just because I am somewhat technologically inclined does not mean I am a graphic designer. Or that I am even qualified to talk about it… never mind actually teaching it.

So naturally I asked a few more questions and turns out a student had pressured him to provide a class teaching graphics in marketing. Specifically in digital marketing. Things like logos, headers, down to pictures used on websites, eBook covers used to represent digital products, and other marketing material like it.

Part of me was honored to have been asked: Wow. The dean must think I am a genius wizard of the online world.

The other part of me was excited: Sweet. We’re finally teaching what we should have been teaching a decade ago. Thanks to higher internet speeds, graphics have played a major role in prettifying the online world.

Sadly I am not one to teach it though. I do NOT know enough about the topic and certainly don’t have any professional training on the matter. But it made me think: It’s hard for people who don’t breathe geeky computer stuff all day to stay up to date with technology. Heck, as techie as I might consider myself, I doubt I will ever fully catch up – even if just for a moment.

And it’s okay. I got better things to worry about. Instead of staying up to date I will try doing leap updates every few years to not fall too far behind but beyond that? I’ll keep trying to catch Pokemon instead 😀

Every so often I just need to take a break from my every day routine and take some time out. Occasionally I will go for an extended drive, long walk, or – like I did yesterday – go fishing.

When you love what you do, you sometimes forget to take a break. At least that is what I find to be the case in my life. I get so wrapped up in the every-day that I burn myself out – spiritually, physically, emotionally, etc – without ever realizing it.

So this last week I fired up my old fishing boat and went for an all day fishing trip. Not only did I soak up massive amounts of sunshine, but also regenerated a ton of fresh energy. Something I had been needing for a while 🙂

When I was a young little lad, my wise dad – may he RIP – told me: “Son, God worked for 6 days and rested on day 7. If he felt the need to take one day off a week, how much more should we?”

If there is one thing I have learned over the years, it is this: Taking questionable shortcuts to gain temporary success is NEVER a good idea!

When you look at wealthy people through-out history, the ones that lived the most fulfilling lives were not the ones winning the lottery, but the ones working hard to amass their fortune. The first will experience a short term burst of joy where as the latter will forever be happy and content with the success they acquired.

I’m not saying being wealthy is bad. Nor is winning the lottery a bad thing. All I am merely saying is: If it sounds too good to be true, it very likely is!

A good friend of mine – Susan Bird – is an accomplished search engine optimization specialist. She told me the other day that the number one question she keeps getting is “What is the fastest way to rank top on Google?”

I suppose it is a legitimate question, but the connotation behind it comes from very flawed human thinking. Namely, always looking for shortcuts!

Susan goes on to say that there are a dozen different ways to rank high in the search engines almost over night, but all of those “overnight” methods will get your site penalized sooner or later. As a result, their short term benefits are long forgotten by the time reality sets in.

In other words, the shortcuts to getting great search engine rankings are not worth your time, money, or energy.

If, on the other hand, you take the time to do SEO properly, you will reap the rewards forever. Or at least for a very long time!

So, the object lesson in all of this is, avoid shortcuts that are setting you up to fail in the long run. Go the extra mile. It is worth it. You will thank me later!

It’s remembrance day in Canada on Tuesday of this coming week. As a result, I have been spending some time remembering the many souls that lost their lives in hopes that there would be peace today.

What is interesting is – although they brought peace to their respective lands all those years ago – there isn’t peace on earth. At least not any more. Which – to me – begs the question: How many more lives will have to be sacrificed to attain and ultimately keep total peace on earth?

I am of course thinking of everything that is happening with ISIS – the terrorist group currently tearing up Iraq. So many innocent lives have already come to an end as a result of that group.

Would you sacrifice yourself so that there would be peace?

How many more will have to make the ultimate sacrifice before there is peace again?

My good friend Konrad Braun and I were recently talking about how a war overseas used to never bother us too much since we both did not have any family in the forces but since we both have kids now, any type of unrest or war that our countries get involved in gives us reasons for great concern.

We’ve both grown up in times of peace. War is not really something either of us can comprehend. As a result we never really thought of it or considered the possibility of ever being involved in one. All that is slowly changing though now that we are family men and now that we are involved in trying to stop yet another monster overseas.

The question we both asked ourselves is: How much is peace worth to us? Would we go fight overseas if that was the only way for our kids to grow up in times of peace?

It’s a deep topic, but it is that time of year to think it through. How much is peace worth to you and would you be willing to sacrifice your life so that there may be peace?

As alluded to in my entry post, I finally decided to pull the trigger and get this website redesigned. It sounds like a tedious task and probably would have been if I had done all the leg work myself.

Thanks to the recommendation of a good friend of mine – Susan Bird – I was able to outsource most of the work for a good price. This not only saved me the headache of trying to do all the dirty work myself, but allowed me to focus my energy on things I love (rather than wasting it on web-design – something I am terrible at).

Friends and former classmates alike used to tell me “Peter, your site sucks. It is not only plain, it is plain boring as well!”

How could I counter that? The jury had spoken – I better take it to heart. Hence this redesign. I hope you like it!

If you have any hinters, pointers or suggestions on how I could make this site even better, be sure to let me know. It’s all about the end user experience so – all feedback welcomed.